Mahoning County’s future must underpin pay review

A compensation and classi- fication study of Mahoning County government is designed to determine whether employees are adequately paid for the work they do.

But given the reality of the county’s shrinking and aging population, we would hope Evergreen Solutions LLC of Florida would also address this question: Does government need 1,864 employees, of whom 1,526 work full time, when the number of residents has declined by almost 10 percent in the last 16 years?

By 2030, the current population of 229,484 will drop to 201,097, according to the Scripps Gerontology Center. But even more noteworthy, the center projects that the percent of residents 60 years and older will rise to 34 percent from the current 27 percent.

So while county commissioners Anthony Traficanti, Carol Rimedio-Righetti and David Ditzler are right to focus on the employees, they also need an objective look into the future.

Wages and benefits in the public sector take up most of the operating budgets, which means that tax revenues remain the main source of funding. Therein lies the challenge for Mahoning County.

According to Audrey Tillis, the county commissioners’ executive director, the study by Evergreen Solutions of Tallahassee will compare county employees’ compensation with that of their peers performing similar tasks in county governments in similar-sized Ohio counties and in private businesses.

The ultimate goal is to provide commissioners with enough information to make a learned decision when employees seek pay raises.

Tillis also said county government needs to be aware of the labor market so employees can be paid a competitive wage to retain them and to reward them for their service.

But because the $65,000 study is about the future, we have no doubt that Evergreen Solutions will analyze the demographic statistics that have been compiled by various companies and organizations.

For instance, data provided to The Vindicator by Youngstown State University’s Regional Economic Development Initiative shows the median household income in Mahoning County is $41,350 – in Youngstown, it’s $24,361.

Another set of statistics published by the website point2homes.com shows the number of households without children is 70,687, compared with 27,777 households with children.

On the all-important issue of income, the following statistics should provide a backdrop for the government compensation and classification study:

$18,338 – median income for residents under 25 years of age.

$38,378 – median for those 25 to 44 years.

$50,255 – for residents 45 to 64 years old.

$36,572 – for those over 65 years old.

Earlier this year, in making the case for a 1-mill, five-year levy for senior services, advocates offered this persuasive argument: as the number of Mahoning County residents 60 years and older increases – it now stands at 62,000-plus out of a population of 229,484 – the demand for services beyond the scope of government is also growing.

Indeed, it was pointed out that close to 1,000 seniors are in need of: adult care; chore services; home repair and maintenance; homemaker, protective and personal care services; medication management; guardianships; and, home-delivered and congregate meals.

In other words, many of our relatives, our neighbors, our friends and acquaintances need a helping hand to make their lives just a little bit easier.

That was the argument we made in support of the senior levy, and fortunately a majority of the voters in the March primary election agreed with us.

It certainly would not be wrong to suggest that Mahoning County’s future is uncertain, at best.

From where we sit, that should be one of the pillars of the compensation and classification study commissioned by Traficanti, Rimedio-Righetti and Ditzler.

They have asked Evergreen Solutions to look at data on wages and benefits from similar-sized counties and even businesses.

But for a legitimate apples-to-apples comparison, the analysts from Florida should select counties that are a mirror image of Mahoning County, especially in terms of demographic trends and economic challenges.